In a significant revision of Uttar Pradesh's voter database, a staggering 2.9 crore individuals have found their names omitted from the draft electoral rolls published on Tuesday. This figure represents 18.7% of the state's total electorate of 15.4 crore, as recorded at the start of the Summary Revision of Photo Electoral Rolls (SIR) exercise on November 4 last year.
Window for Restoration and Final Roll Publication
There is a recourse for those excluded. The affected voters have been granted time until February 6 to file claims and objections to get their names reinstated. The final electoral rolls are scheduled for publication on March 6. The state's chief electoral officer, Navdeep Rinwa, stated that after an extensive door-to-door enumeration drive across all 75 districts and 403 assembly constituencies, 12.5 crore voters out of the initial 15.4 crore were retained.
Reasons Behind the Massive Deletions
The breakdown provided by the election authorities reveals multiple reasons for the large-scale removal of names:
- 1.3 crore voters (8.4%) were identified as having permanently shifted out of Uttar Pradesh.
- 25.5 lakh voters (over 1.6%) were found to be enrolled in two different places.
- 79.5 lakh voters (5.1%) could not be traced during the verification process.
- 46.2 lakh voters (almost 3%) were confirmed as deceased.
- Over 7.7 lakh voters (0.5%) did not return their filled-in enumeration forms.
Additionally, over 1 crore voters (8% of the 12.5 crore retained) were placed in an 'unmapped' category because their names could not be traced in the current rolls or the 2003 SIR list. These individuals will receive notices and must submit one of 12 specified documents.
District-Wise Disparities in Deletion Rates
The impact of the revision was not uniform across the state. In 22 out of 75 districts, the percentage of deletions exceeded the state average of 18.7%.
Lucknow district reported the highest deletion rate at 30%. Of the 12 lakh names removed here, approximately 5.3 lakh were voters who opted to shift their registration to their native places, while 4.2 lakh could not be located.
Following Lucknow were Ghaziabad (28.8%), Balrampur (26%), and Kanpur Nagar (25.5%). On the other end of the spectrum, Lalitpur had the least deletions at 9.9%, with Hamirpur (10.8%) and Mahoba (12.4%) also showing lower-than-average removal rates.
Migration and Procedural Delays
An official commented that the high rate of "permanently shifted voters"—at 8.4%, nearly double Bihar's 4.6%—was not unexpected. They cited a 2021 Down to Earth survey which estimated Uttar Pradesh's migration rate at around 28.4%, twice that of Bihar's 14.2%.
The enumeration process itself faced extensions. The original deadline of December 4 was pushed first to December 11 and then to December 26 after initial drafts excluded a large number of voters. Rinwa explained that the publication of the draft rolls, initially set for December 31, was delayed due to ongoing fieldwork and Election Commission instructions to rationalize polling stations.
Authorities will process all claims and objections until February 27. Meanwhile, during the enumeration phase, over 15.7 lakh people submitted Form 6 for new voter enrolment. These applications, if found valid, will be included in the final list published on March 6.
